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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens every time Aeneas tries to tear a branch from a tree in Thrace to construct a roof for the altar of his new colony?

2. Why does King Iarbas pray to Jove/Jupiter?

3. Which of the following is NOT a type of funeral game?

4. What curse does Celaeno lay on the Trojans?

5. Who or what does Venus say is the cause of the fall of Troy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What instances in Book V reveal how the Trojans feel about burying their dead?

2. Describe the "marriage" between Dido and Aeneas.

3. What are Neptune's feelings toward Troy and toward Aeneas? How do these feelings affect Aeneas' journey on the sea?

4. Why are Dido's suitors so angry when she takes up with Aeneas?

5. Compare and contrast the Greeks with the Trojans in the affair of the wooden horse.

6. How does Anchises explain the process by which souls become reborn?

7. What are some instances where Aeneas betrays a hastiness in temperament in Book 2?

8. How does talking to Anchises prepare Aeneas to go build a new city for the Trojans in Italy?

9. What fate does Laocoön meet and why?

10. Describe the state of construction in Carthage in Book 1.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A bildingsroman is a work of art that tells of the development of a character, perhaps telling how the character matures or grows capable of taking on a duty as the process of a journey or a series of trials. Explain why The Aeneid is or is not a bildingsroman by examining how Aeneas does or does not develop over the course of it. Examine issues such as:

1) his capacity as a leader

2) his control over his emotions and temper

3) the wiseness of his judgement

4) his treatment of others.

Essay Topic 2

Compare the information about the future depicted on the shield of Aeneas with the information about the future told to Aeneas when he travels to the underworld to see Anchises. How are the depictions alike? How are they different? What might these similarities and differences signify?

Essay Topic 3

Similes and other detailed descriptions help the reader picture and understand things about the settings, characters, and events of this work. Identify an example of a simile being used to describe each of these three things and explain how it is used, what effect it has, and why Virgil might have used that particular simile in that particular place.

(see the answer keys)

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